Case against ex-FLCC official laid out

Nancy Purdy, a former Finger Lakes Community College official, is said to have liked to see students do well.

But Purdy, who resigned in June from her position of associate vice president for academic initiatives at FLCC, now finds herself accused of helping students in the wrong way.

Purdy, 55, of Farmington, was charged on Thursday with official misconduct and second-degree falsifying records. Both charges are misdemeanors.

She is accused of changing grades and adding courses to FLCC student transcripts without authorization. Purdy is scheduled to appear in Hopewell Town Court on Oct. 8.

Ontario County sheriff's Investigator Eric Woehr said Monday that he began looking into the matter in June, after the State University of New York conducted an audit that was prompted by an FLCC staff member finding irregularities in a student's file. FLCC, which has its main campus in the Ontario County town of Hopewell, is part of the SUNY system.

"The audit, it showed changes that involved 19 students," said Woehr. "She allegedly did not have authorization to make these changes."

Purdy, who had worked at FLCC for 25 years, did not respond Monday to phone messages asking her to comment.

Some of the alleged changes concerned student grades and were done to benefit the student, said Woehr.

In other instances, Purdy is accused of giving students college credit for courses that they didn't pay for, said Woehr.

These courses, said Woehr, were taken by high school students in the Gemini program, which is a partnership between FLCC and high schools that provides eligible high school students with the opportunity to receive both high school and college credit for specified courses. But the students must pay reduced FLCC tuition to get college credit.

FLCC spokeswoman Lenore Friend said six former students whose transcripts need to be corrected have been notified and that the college is working with them on a case-by-case basis.

"The college is focusing our efforts on ensuring that student academic records are completely accurate, rather than dealing with financial records for courses that were taken in the past," Friend said in an email responding to questions about the case.

And she said: "Any erroneous entries on student transcripts are being corrected."

Woehr said that in individual cases that he investigated either the student or a student's parent approached Purdy.

"Everyone I interviewed held her in high regard. She likes being able to help students succeed," Woehr said. "She did not gain anything monetarily."

Purdy did not know any of these students personally, Woehr said

None of the students involved now attend FLCC, said Friend. And she said that they would not face penalties or sanctions from the college.

Woehr said that all but one of the alleged changes in transcripts occurred between 2000 and 2009. However, the last of the alleged changes was made this past February — and was subsequently detected by an FLCC staff member. That discovery prompted the SUNY audit and Sheriff's Office investigation.

Friend said that steps have been taken to prevent a recurrence of the alleged tampering with records.

"The college has limited the number of people with access to change student academic records and conducts regular and frequent audits of any such changes," Friend said.